CSU police. (CSU)
Columbus State University Police arrested a Phenix City man Monday morning, just after they believe he made his fifth bomb threat against the institution.
Lawrence E. Price, 45, of 67 McMurrian Drive, was charged with five counts of making terrorist threats, and one count each of carrying a weapon to school, possession of a firearm in the commission of a crime and obstruction of a peace officer, according to a CSU statement.
University Police identified a location where the calls had originated and during an undercover operation Monday morning, and identified the suspect after a call indicating the presence of a bomb at CSU was made to the Columbus Police Department and to the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer. Police closed in and arrested Price in a university parking lot.
Inside Price’s 1997 pickup truck, officials found two rifles, a shotgun, a small handgun, a compound bow, an axe, an antique saw, three bottles of alcohol and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. A Bomb Squad dog checked Price and his truck thoroughly and found no indication of explosives. University Police alerted the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Phenix City Police.
The incident follows two bomb threats against the university in the last two weeks. Officials evacuated the faculty building for several hours after the second call.
The Columbus Police Department, the Muscogee County Sheriff’s Office, the county’s bomb squad, and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation took part in the investigation.
Price was enrolled in the biology program, the statement said.
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